FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Here we will try to answer the most common questions our customers have asked us. If you're unable to find the answer your looking for then please feel free to Contact Us directly with your question or comment. We will gladly respond as soon as we possibly can.

Not necessarily. You may place your order by sending us a direct e-mail request, this is useful mostly for custom orders. However for regular order for items available in our store, by signing up for the shopping cart you help us have a quick way to manage and fill your order and contact you if needed. It also helps us avoid wrong addresses or misspelled names. It also allows you to leave feedback and reviews on our products. Direct e-mails are best used for custom orders, though if you have any comments or questions you can always contact us at any time. We will gladly respond as quickly as possible to your e-mails.

From your shopping cart there is a button labeled 'Estimate Shipping'. By using this button, a pop-up window will open where you enter you location, and your shipping options will be presented. You do NOT need to sign up with us to obtain shipping estimates.

NOTE:
Rarely, Canada Post's servers may be down for short periods for maintenance. During this time you may not be able to use the shipping estimator. Though this is rare, In this event please e-mail us for a shipping quote, or you may try again in an hour or so.

Prosthetics, or latex appliances, are pieces made of slip/slush cast latex, hot foam latex or cold foam latex that are usually adhered to your face with an adhesive, and blended in to your skin with makeup to seamlessly appear as one piece. They are the professional standard for Television / Movies and the Theatrical industry to creat fantastical characters.

This is liquid latex that is poured into our moulds and through a build-up of layers create the prosthetics or masks. The result is a hollow latex shell. In the case of prosthetics, they have somewhat thin edges, while masks will have thicker edges. These hollow shells are glued to your face only around the edges. They are best suited for use for background characters, or anyone with few lines.

They are tough and durable, lasting a dozen or more applications and usually don’t need a remover since they can be peeled off like band-aids. They are somewhat flexible and will move with the mouth and have some expressions, but they aren’t as flexible or as expressive as hot foam latex. Since they are hollow, if they’re improperly applied, they can muffle the voice and make it sound nasal due to echoing. Condensation can also form inside of these pieces which can cause adhesive to detatch, usually around the mouth area.

Hot foam latex

This is a latex that is whipped up into a foam, poured into our moulds, assembled with a face core and then placed in an oven to bake for several hours. The result is a soft spongey filled foam piece. They have the thinest edges of all types of latex and can be glued down completely to your face since it comes into more contact with more surface area than just the edges. These are best suited for main characters or for anyone with a lot of signing and lines. Since they are filled, there will be no problems with echoing nor condensation.

Foam latex is extremely flexible and expressive and will give the liveliest performance. However, foam latex is more fragile and can tear, so it requires a remover to remove the pieces. The edges are particularly fragile and subsequent applications of foam latex prosthetics may need cabo-patch to help blend torn edges. These pieces usually have a lifespan of about 6-8 applications. They will also absorb sweat and gain a build-up of used adhesive over time which contributes to their wearing out.

Cold foam latex

This is an expanding polyurethane foam (A-B Foam) that is sandwiched between slush cast latex layers. The result is a filled foam piece with thick edges. This type of material is best suited for mask making, prop ears, horns and anything that needs to be static as it’s the least flexible of all materials we use. It’s the best basis for making costume heads that are furred since it can be flexible, yet solid enough to hold its shape. It’s also durable with the slush/slip cast latex skin, masks made with cold foam could last for 5 years or more. It’s not suitable for being glued on like a prosthetic, which will make the piece wear out quickly by pulling latex skin away from the foam.

Note: All liquid adhesives are available on our site only during warmer months of the year, and is subject to climate conditions in your area to prevent freezing. If Pros-Aid, Liquid Latex, Pax Paint or Cabopatch freeze, they will be ruined.

Slush / Slip cast latex prosthetics take 2-3 days to dry in their moulds per copy. Hot foam latex prosthetics take about 1 day to make a copy, with a maximum of 3 copies per day of any single piece. Cold foam latex pieces take about 1 day to make as well with a maximum of 2 copies per day of any single piece. If you have an order for multiple copies of a single item, please be aware it’ll take more time to make more copies of the single piece. Contact us if you have specific timeframes when ordering multiple copies of a single piece.

In certain moulds with built-in teeth, air bubbles can form in the teeth where they won’t turn out. Usually it’s the only part that won’t turn out and it’s unrealistic to throw away the entire piece over a few small air bubbles in the teeth. We will usually repair the teeth with a build-up of slush cast latex, or sometimes we’ll use cotton with the latex to build it up if there is too much missing of a tooth. This won't affect the performance or the look of your piece once it's been painted.

Sometimes yellow spots on hot foam latex are simply discoloration from release agent in molds. It may have stained the piece, but it will not affect the quality nor performance of the prosthetic. Makeup will cover such flaws.

Sometimes small air bubbles form in our prosthetics. When air bubbles appear in non-crtitical areas of a prosthetic, we usually repair the flaw by patching it with liquid latex and smoothing it over. These patches will not affect the prosthetic's performance or durability and will become invisible once makeup is applied.

Almost any makeup will work with prosthetics. Grease or oil based makeup as well as water based makeup will work well on prosthetics. Even regular cosmetic makeup will work on prosthetics. Brands such as WolfeFX, BenNye, Kryolan, Mehron, to name a few, will provide the best quality. We offer Wolfe FX water based makeup in out cart.

Avoid tubes of 'Halloween' makeup sold in department stores or pharmacies, as they tend to stain and flake off.

Oil based makeup adversely affects latex. Over time oil will degrade the latex and weaken it. If you plan to use the same prosthetic for several months keep this in mind.

We offer PaxPaint as another paint option, it's a blend of Pros-Aide adhesive and Acrylic Paint. This results in a flexible and very durable paint that will require a lot of scrubbing or remover to take off, so try to use it only for painting latex.

We can make just about anything. Masks, heads, gloves, costumes, prosthetics… there are many possibilities. We prefer avoiding making anything resembling copyrighted characters.
When we get requests for new prosthetic/mask pieces, we can either make it completely custom, semi-custom or generic.

When something is completely custom, it’s where we absolutely must use your face cast and/or what we make absolutely cannot be copied, where you retain the rights to the moulds, then we’ll generally charge full price for sculpting and casting of the piece since we won’t ever sell copies of the piece again. Prices depend on the size and detail of the piece.

When something is semi-custom or generic, we only will need to charge a portion for any sculpting or assemble something with our existing pieces. We retain the rights to the moulds where we make as many copies as we have orders demanding them.

For example, say you wanted something fairly common, like a fox head mask. It would at that point be fairly generic since we have a fox muzzle, or can sculpt a new one to add to our catalogue. No new major sculpting and casting means no sculpting or casting fees for such a request. The fees in this case would be used to cover the production materials.

But if you wanted something obscure, like a Lemur head mask, or a mask based off of your own copyrighted character that you didn’t want any copies of it circulating, then it would be completely custom as we won’t have sales ever again for that type of head or if you need to retain control and rights over your design.

We simply prefer making animals. There aren’t many available and it comes up very often in theater, film, LARPs, Cosplays, Sci-Fi, etc. Zombies and vampires have been done time and time again by many other companies, yet no one has taken the time to make a horse, a frog or even any beaks. As artists, we prefer the fantasy side of costuming over gore and horror.

Any prosthetic with a shorter muzzle will be best since it’s less protruding from your face and will be less likely to be hit by a boffer weapon. The type of material depends on your preference and budget.

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About Us

We are a pair of artists with over 15 years of experience designing, sculpting & creating latex masks & prosthetics.

We have plenty of animal & creature designs that can be used for film, television & media productions, theaters, LARPers, Cosplayers, Halloween & any other kind of occasion that has a need for unique latex pieces.